MIKE DOUGHTY (USED TO BE IN SOUL COUGHING)

MOON HOOCH

MIKE DOUGHTY

Mike Doughty contains multitudes: Singer. Songwriter. Guitar player. Poet. Author. Playwright. Photographer. Most Improved Camper, West Point Youth Camp, 1982. He’s released five solo albums, some EPs, a couple of live albums, a bunch of EDM tracks and remixes, a poetry book, and a memoir about that time he was in a band called Soul Coughing and didn’t like it and took a lot of drugs. He most recently released an album of covers in the fall of 2012, wherein he played songs by John Denver, Cheap Trick, and Stephen Sondheim.

After years of not playing the songs of the band he founded in the 90s, Mike Doughty’s got an upright bass player, a drummer, and he’s put together a show playing the best of Soul Coughing–”Super Bon Bon”, “Circles” among them. “My memoir, The Book of Drugs, was a big fat ball of darkness,” Doughty says. “I wanted to figure out who I was, where I was, and what I meant, when I wrote those songs–and what, back then, I originally wanted them to sound like.”

MOON HOOCH

"Whoever thought of a band with two saxophones and a drummer? That's the stupidest idea, right?" Moon Hooch saxophonist Wenzl McGowen asked the crowd at a recent gig. Well, Wenzl, James Muschler (drums) and Mike Wilbur (saxophone) never intended on forming a band together. The three guys attended The New School for Jazz and contemporary music. James is the only graduate.

The three began busking in the subway and in the city's parks to pay off the New School's extreme tuition costs. At the same time, Wenzl was producing electronic music. One day he wrote a simple tune with two part harmony. When the guys played this music in the subway, people immediately began dancing.

One subway goer asked, "What's your band's name?"

Mike blurted, "Moon Juice."

A Google search revealed that there were already multiple bands called Moon Juice. With the help of a thesaurus, the name Moon Hooch was selected, and more importantly, the trio now realized that they were, in fact, a band.

Since solidifying as a band, Moon Hooch has quickly gained a reputation for inciting "subway raves" (they were banned from performing at the Bedford Ave stop off the L line in Brooklyn for "starting too many dance parties"), their strange instrumentation and explosive live show. Their frequent presence in New York City subways and parks has brought them notice and fans which has led to appearances as the house band on Australian TV show "Hamish and Andy's Gap Year," and a national tour with Mike Doughty (Doughty saw them on a train platform and immediately invited to tour as his supporting act). They have also held residencies at The Knitting Factory and Brooklyn Bowl.

The band has already begun to expand its sound beyond just two saxophones and drums. Wenzl inserts a cardboard tube into his saxophone to create a Dubstep style womp, and switches between a contrabass clarinet and electronic wind instrument. They also have begun experimenting with various vocalists, inviting both singers and rappers on stage with them at shows.

Recorded in just a single day, their debut record, "The Moon Hooch Album," gives the listener a taste of what's to come for these guys. They seamlessly blend House, Dubstep, Drum & Bass, and Jazz into style that is uniquely Moon Hooch: Cave Music.

$18.00 - $20.00

Tickets Available at the Door

Mike Doughty and his band of musical samurai play "Circles", "Super Bon Bon", and the best of Soul Coughing. Whole show of songs from El Oso, Ruby Vroom, and Irresistible Bliss.